Defining Moments: Awkward

People hate to feel awkward. I don’t know anybody that really likes to feel awkward, unless there’s something just wrong with them. We hate that silence after someone says or does something out of place or poorly timed or inappropriate, then enters that silence, and then…. Awk…ward.

(Side note: Have you ever noticed how some situations aren’t necessarily awkward until someone says the sing-song version of “awk-ward” and then it’s awkward? Yep, it never fails.)

But there’s great potential in awkwardness. Feeling awkward means that you’re not comfortable. There are a lot of dangers in feeling comfortable. Being comfortable means that nothing is pressuring or challenging you to change or be stretched. Being comfortable means that you might become complacent.

Awkward situations and circumstances are defining moments because of how we can respond to being uncomfortable. Meeting someone new can be awkward. Confronting someone with the truth can be awkward. And let’s be honest, sometimes sharing about Christ can feel very awkward, especially if you know you haven’t been living a Christ-like life around that same person. That’s awkward.

But all of these situations have the potential to stretch us and grow us in ways that wouldn’t of happened if we had stayed where it was comfortable. It’s the awkward moments that help define what will stretch us outside of “comfortable” and will make us grateful for those moments in the end.